The EITI and Commodities Trading Transparency: Where Are We Headed?

Dec 10, 2015 | Nicholas Garrett
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For the past 2 years RCS Global has been advising Trafigura on its journey to become the commodities trading industry leader on transparency. With developments in the trading industry transparency space accelerating towards the end of 2015, we would like to share our view of next steps.

Trafigura’s investment in transparency has been part of a broader commitment to securing its long-term social license to operate and improving its non-financial performance. The company was not just the first privately owned commodities trading company to formally become a Supporting Company of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in November 2014, a year later it also became the first company to voluntarily disclose its payments to several governments for oil, gas and petroleum products in line with EITI requirements in its annual responsibility report. Couple these steps with the fact that Trafigura has published its annual accounts publicly since 2013 – again, the only privately owned company in the sector to have done so – and a clear picture emerges of a company that is committed to better explaining its performance and impacts. The data released by the company in respect of payments to governments covered a total of US$4.3 billion made in 2013 to the national oil companies of Colombia, Ghana, Nigeria, Norway, Peru and Trinidad & Tobago, which are all EITI implementing countries.